Each year in May, the Central Kentucky News-Journal honors Taylor County women with a special section. The newspaper also asks for help from the community in choosing one special woman who has particularly excelled in her career, community and church during the past year.

Residents send in their nominations for Taylor County Woman of the Year and then a committee of News-Journal staff members and others chooses a winner based on those nominations.

So many times, we hear complaints that there's nothing to do. Well, we don't want to hear that for at least the next few weeks, because judging from our Calendar of Events page, there's no possible way anyone couldn't find something fun to do.

This past Tuesday night alone was a treat - with a performance by the renowned Vienna Boys' Choir and then a public meeting to discuss proposals for the Heartland Parkway.

Commonwealth Cleanup Week starts Sunday. Have you made your plans to help?

Commonwealth Cleanup Week is an annual weeklong event geared toward cleaning up Kentucky's communities. And all across the state, groups are gearing up to clean roadsides and parks in their communities.

Last year, more than 5,151 people participated in the statewide event, picking up 14,860 bags of trash along 1,846 miles of roadway and cleaning up 26 dumps statewide. Participants also collected and recycled 337 appliances and 3,956 tires.

Taylor County Fiscal Court's Budget, Audits and Personnel Committee recently concluded that the 2009-2010 jail budget funding will fall about $600,000 short of needed revenue. There are a lot of factors that have led to this situation and are, at this point in time, really not relevant.

What is important is how the shortfall is addressed.

Suggestions that have arisen include: raising the occupational tax rate, adding an insurance premium tax, adding a sunset tax and even breaking the occupational tax agreement with the City.

Whether it's through a parent, a spouse, a child, a grandparent, a friend, or even ourselves, cancer will reach out its deadly hand and touch us all. And that's why we should all be concerned with research into its cure.

What may have killed us 50, 20 or even just a few years ago, is now treatable - thanks to research.

And that's what gives us hope.

As the second leading cause of the death in the U.S., cancer will affect all too many of us. We each have a risk - experts say half of all men and a third of all women will be diagnosed with some form of the disease.

Changing the look of downtown Campbellsville is definitely a good thing. We can’t help but wonder if a few of the changes planned for streetscape and beautification don’t necessarily fall into the “sometimes” category.

New, handicapped-accessible sidewalks and walking paths are definitely a plus. Closing the main entrance to the library parking lot, though, we’re not as sure about.

The ABC documentary “A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains” and its short follow-up stirred a lot of talk in Central Appalachia this month. But what action will ensue? That is the question the people of the region, and their journalists, need to answer.

Report cards - they're either dreaded or anticipated. They keep us as parents informed about how well our children are doing in school. And good report cards are a sign that our schools are teaching our children what they need to know in their journey to adulthood.

A story on today's front page explains our local schools' report cards, which provide information on schools' and districts' progress. All Kentucky students are expected to reach "proficiency" - or scores of 100 on state tests - by the year 2014. And that's not too far off in our future.